


Crisis Averted

by theotherme



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Joel (The Last of Us) Lives, My First AO3 Post, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27216259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotherme/pseuds/theotherme
Summary: This is my fix-it of *that* scene from TLOU2. Also, no actual depiction of violence, but the threat of a golf club plays a primary role here.
Relationships: Dina & Jesse (The Last Of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Crisis Averted

The door was down a short set of stairs. The sounds coming from the other side echo in her ears. She opens it slowly to reveal a woman with a golf club standing over-

She aims her gun, ready to fire. Suddenly she’s pushed down and out of the way. Instinctively, she’s kicking out and slashing with her knife.  _ Get off me! Get the fuck off me! _ Someone’s kicking her stomach. They stop. The people move to reveal the woman.  _ You’re gonna fucking die! _

Someone else comes. They’re talking. The woman is just fucking casual about it.

“Let him go!”

_ Who is that? _

“Let him go!”

_ She snuck in. _

She’s trying to move but the arms on her won’t budge. 

_ We gotta get out of here before the whole town’s on top of us. _

She can’t take her eyes off him. He’s just laying there.

_ End it. Now.  _

“Joel, get up. Joel,  _ fucking _ get up.” His eyes open. He’s not happy she’s here. They hadn’t been talking for months and she still knows what his eyes say.  _ I’m sorry _ . He closes his eyes like he’s resigned. No, no, no. 

“Please stop! Please don’t do this.” The woman raises the golf club. “Joel, no, no, no, fucking no, you can’t do this to me. I’m so sorry. Fuck, please, Joel,  _ please _ get the fuck up. We’re supposed to watch that fucking stupid movie you picked out toni- ” She chokes on her own spit. The golf club is still raised. Joel’s eyes open again. She can see the tears even from across the room. 

“Joel, no, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m so sorry, okay? Fucking, no, I- shit- I wanted to make this better.” The sobs are making it hard for her to breathe. “Please Joel, fucking get up, I need you to fucking get up. There’s so much shit I haven’t told you. I need to tell you about Dina, okay? You get the fuck up right fucking now and I’ll you everything about her. And you can meet her do your whole dad thing, too, just fucking  _ please get up _ !” The woman pauses, golf club still in hand. The people holding her down tighten their grips.  _ No, no, no, don’t knock me out. _ There’s shuffling above her. The woman raises the golf club again, ready to strike. 

“Please let him go! Please,  _ please _ , please, that’s my- ” She’s choking and she can’t breathe but she has to get the words out. The woman swings. “- that’s my  _ dad! _ ” 

The club stops just above his head. The woman is breathing hard. She drops the club and whips around. Suddenly Ellie’s picked up by her collar, face to face with the woman, anger and grief suffocating them both. 

“The fuck do you mean,  _ dad _ ?” Ellie meets the woman’s eyes. Neither of them blink.

“I mean, that he’s my fucking  _ dad _ . He would burn the  _ world _ to save me and fucking  _ so will I _ to save him.” They breathe each other’s exhales until the woman just drops her. Before anyone can move to grab her, Ellie’s half-crouched with Joel protected behind her back, knife out, teeth bared, tears streaming down her face, ready to kill. The woman just turns to look at her. Her face pale and sickly. One of the others begins to move, but she holds out her hand and they stop. The man from before comes in.

“What the- ” He pulls out his gun. 

“Owen. Don’t.” The man looks over to the woman in shock. 

“Fuck’s going on here? I told you to end it! After all we’ve been through? You were the- ”

“Owen, that’s her dad.” The man’s gun immediately lowers a few inches, almost subconsciously. 

“What? Joel doesn’t have a kid.”

“Doesn’t mean he isn’t her dad.” The man finally turns to Ellie to see what the woman meant. Ellie’s tears are hot and the man can see the snot dripping out of her nose. The hand that’s holding the knife is shaking. She’s darting her eyes between him and the woman, assessing which of the two will make the first move against her. The man lets out a big breath. “Abby, let’s go.” He turns to the rest of the group. “All of us, let’s go.”

The man trains his gun on Ellie as the rest of the group files out of the door. The woman is last to leave. She turns back to stare at Ellie and for a split second, it’s like looking in a mirror. As the woman walks out, the man slowly walks backwards before closing the door in front of him. It’s silent. Ellie races to grab her gun before returning to Joel. 

“Joel,  _ Joel! _ Can you hear me? Okay good keep your eyes open, you can’t die on me Joel. They’re gone now, it’s just you and me, okay? But don’t worry, Jesse and Dina are coming too, and the whole fucking town as soon as we say something about it, okay? That’s good, keep those eyes open.” The door opens again and Ellie immediately raises her gun. The man on the other side whips his hands up in defense. 

“Ellie! It’s me!” Tommy’s voice filters through. He’s limping and his head is bleeding, but otherwise alive. “Are you oka- oh shit Joel.”

“Tommy, you gotta fucking help me. He’s fucking bleeding everywhere and I can’t fucking make it stop. Please, he- he can’t die. Tommy,  _ please _ !” He squeezes her shoulder briefly before he leans to assess the situation. Ellie moves to cradle Joel’s head in her lap.

“Joel, brother, come on now. You’re making Ellie cry. You gotta keep your eyes open man. You’ve gotta stay awake. Ellie, make sure he stays awake. I’ll try to stop the bleeding. Oh good they tourniquetted his leg how fucking kind of them. Ellie did you come alone? Ellie? Ellie!” She whips her head to him. 

“No. Dina and Jesse were right behind me. They should be here soon.” As soon as she says that she hears voices calling her name.

“Ellie! Where are you?”

“Here, Jesse! Hurry!”

Dina and Jesse burst through the door, guns raised. They lower them upon seeing the situation. Jesse immediately states that he will go back for backup while Dina runs to help Tommy. After assessing that Tommy is doing all he can, she moves to hold Ellie. Her soft voice filters through the rush of adrenaline in Ellie’s ears. 

“Ellie, are you alright?”

“He can’t die, Dina. He’s my dad.” Dina holds her tight as Tommy continues to bandage Joel and move him to make him more comfortable. 

“He won’t Ellie. You saved him.”

Ellie doesn’t know how long she’s sat with Joel’s head in her lab and Dina’s arms around her, but it must be a while because Jesse returns with the proper medical personnel and equipment from Jackson. Tommy steps aside as they move in to work on Joel, and Ellie is moved away as well. She doesn’t go far, barely a few feet, as she watches the man who so recklessly loves her fight for his life. She doesn’t wipe her tears away as she moves further into Dina’s embrace. 

**Author's Note:**

> On the whole, I understand the major motifs and certain character developments that the writers wanted to explore, but I abide by they didn't have to make that scene happen. In fact, I still believe that even if Joel were saved, Ellie would still set off to annihilate the WLF with Dina and Jesse in tow. I kind of made Abby into a good person here seeing as she lets Joel go, and I may go back to change that to make her need for character development apparent as well. Her relationship with Lev was very important to her growth past all the hatred and anger she had accumulated over what happened to her father and how things ended with Owen and his further relationship with Mel, etc.


End file.
